Universität Hamburg, Germany.
Universität Bielefeld, Germany.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2024 Jan;50(1):78-102. doi: 10.1177/01461672221100336. Epub 2022 Jun 24.
Research suggests that people spontaneously infer traits from behavioral information, thus forming impressions of actors' personalities. Such spontaneous trait inferences (STI) have been examined in a wide range of studies in the last four decades. Here, we provide the first systematic meta-analysis of this vast literature. We included data from = 86 publications, with overall = 13,630 participants. The average STI effect was moderate to large ( = 0.59) and showed substantial heterogeneity. The type of experimental paradigm significantly moderated the STI effect size, with larger effects in long-term memory-based paradigms compared with working memory-based paradigms. Generally, STI effects were robust to various methodological variations and also to potential concerns of publication bias. Contrary to expectations, cultural background (independent vs. interdependent) did not emerge as a significant moderator of STI effects. We discuss these findings with respect to their theoretical relevance and derive implications for future research and theorizing.
研究表明，人们会自发地从行为信息中推断出特征，从而对演员的个性形成印象。在过去的四十年中，人们在广泛的研究中对这种自发的特质推断（STI）进行了研究。在这里，我们对这一大量文献进行了首次系统的元分析。我们纳入了 86 篇文献的数据，共有 13630 名参与者。平均 STI 效应为中等至较大（ = 0.59），且具有显著的异质性。实验范式的类型显著调节了 STI 效应大小，基于长期记忆的范式比基于工作记忆的范式的效应更大。一般来说，STI 效应在各种方法学变化和出版偏倚的潜在担忧下都是稳健的。与预期相反，文化背景（独立与相互依存）并没有成为 STI 效应的显著调节因素。我们将根据这些发现的理论相关性进行讨论，并为未来的研究和理论化提出启示。
